“Sobriety diminishes, discriminates and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. It is in fact the great exciter of the Yes function in man. It brings its votary from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core. It makes him for the moment one with truth.” (William James)

por WILLIAM JAMES (1842-1910)
in: “Varieties of Religious Experience”

Formado em medicina, “um dos fundadores da psicologia moderna e importante filósofo ligado ao Pragmatismo”, William James escreveu no começo do século XX um livro já clássico, As Variedades da Experiência Religiosa. Na sequência, compartilhamos um texto desta obra em que James versa sobre o misticismo (entendido como um estado “expandido” de consciência), tece relações com o conceito de “consciência cósmica” de Bucke e filosofa sobre as substâncias químicas facilitadoras destes “transes místicos” (Aldous Huxley será profundamente influenciado por este estudo em suas próprias viagens na tentativa de decifrar os estados mentais desencadeados pelo consumo da mescalina, por exemplo). James faz ainda um belo elogio da música, da poesia e da arte em geral, avançando a hipótese ousada de que nossa susceptibilidade estética, ou nossa capacidade para fruir obras-de-arte, depende do frescor e da vivacidade das potencialidades místicas de nossa consciência. Um texto denso, profundo e belíssimo que vale a pena ler com calma, refletir sobre e viajar em cima. Have a nice trip!

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What does the expression ‘mystical states of consciousness’ mean? I’ll propose to you four marks which, when an experience has them, may justify us in calling it mystical:








Even the least mystical of you must by this time be convinced of the existence of mystical moments as states of consciousness of an entirely specific quality, and of the deep impression which they make on those who have them. A Canadian psychiatrist, Dr. R.M. Bucke, gives to the more distinctly characterized of these phenomena the name of cosmic consciousness.

“The prime characteristic of cosmic consciousness is a consciousness of the cosmos, that is, of the life and order of the universe. Along with the consciousness of the cosmos there occurs an intellectual enlightenment which alone would place the individual on a new plane of existence- would make him almost a member of a new species. To this is added a state of moral exaltation, an indescribable feeling of elevation, elation, and joyousness, and a quickening of the moral sense, which is fully as striking, and more important than is the enhanced intellectual power. With these come what may be called a sense of immortality, a consciousness of eternal life, not a conviction that he shall have this, but the consciousness that he has it already.”